Saving superconducting quantum processors from decay and correlated errors generated by gamma and cosmic rays
Open Access
- 3 June 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in npj Quantum Information
- Vol. 7 (1), 1-9
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-021-00431-0
Abstract
Error-corrected quantum computers can only work if errors are small and uncorrelated. Here, I show how cosmic rays or stray background radiation affects superconducting qubits by modeling the phonon to electron/quasiparticle down-conversion physics. For present designs, the model predicts about 57% of the radiation energy breaks Cooper pairs into quasiparticles, which then vigorously suppress the qubit energy relaxation time (T1 ~ 600 ns) over a large area (cm) and for a long time (ms). Such large and correlated decay kills error correction. Using this quantitative model, I show how this energy can be channeled away from the qubit so that this error mechanism can be reduced by many orders of magnitude. I also comment on how this affects other solid-state qubits.Keywords
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